‘Reign’ Review: Top 5 Moments from ‘Monsters’

One of the best things about Reign is that it’s hard to guess where the story is going. That’s impressive for any show, but the freshman drama has been throwing curve balls at the audience on a weekly basis, sometimes more than once per episode, and it never fails to create an engaging hour of television.

“Monsters” promised surprises and it more than delivered. The episode brought us a temporary queen, who wants to make the position permanent, a rapidly unraveling Henry, a groom swap, reconciliation and a surprise wedding with an extremely unhappy bride and groom. Let’s get into the good stuff.

5. Greer gets engaged – and then caught kissing Leith

Last week, we learned that Greer’s family had arranged a marriage for her. Tonight, we got to meet Lord Julian, who seemed like a pretty decent guy. He wasn’t Leith, but he had money and a title and Greer didn’t hate him. Since that was pretty much all she could ask for, she told Mary she wanted her queen’s blessing. Mary gave it to her and then Leith came to her room to say goodbye, but he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her. Of course that was when Lord Julian came in and saw them.

I was expecting the worst, but Julian didn’t want Leith killed. However, he couldn’t marry Greer. She was devastated and humiliated when everyone began gossiping about her dalliance with a kitchen boy. But that didn’t stop her from being a good friend and suggesting that Lola step in and marry Julian before her pregnancy is discovered. That is true friendship. Lord Peppercorn stepped in to save Leith once again, this time getting him released from jail and sent into the military and he asked Greer to give marriage to him a chance. I don’t know if either of these marriages will happen, but I’m glad the ladies are finally getting stories.

4. Bash returns – and asks Francis to help fight the Darkness

Francis wasn’t exactly thrilled to see his brother back at the castle and did nothing to stop the guards from dragging him to the dungeon. Mary bribed the guards to release him, but Bash didn’t want to go. He told Mary that he wasn’t there for her and started to tell him about Rowan, which Mary was not in the mood to hear. He got through to her and she tried to get Francis to listen to him, but he still couldn’t see past his anger. That was when Bash told his brother that he had a witness – Olivia.

She told her story and Francis finally believed that there was something in the woods. Nostradamus explained that it was a man. He knew this because he found a human tooth embedded in one of Olivia’s wounds and yes, it was all kinds of disgusting. But it did the job and Francis agreed to head into the woods with Bash to take care of the problem. Meanwhile, Olivia and Nostradamus continued to grow closer and shared a kiss. I guess it was sweet for people who are interested in either one of these characters. Sadly, I am not so this was the one part of the episode that I didn’t care about.

3. King Henry takes a queen for the day – and she has an agenda

The court has a tradition that lets one of the servant girls be queen for a day if she finds a bean in her dessert. Being queen basically means wearing Catherine’s crown and letting Henry take her to bed, if he finds her attractive. Catherine attempted to cancel the celebration because she sees that Henry is losing it, but he ignored her and a servant named Penelope became queen. In a truly creepy scene, Henry tried to persuade Mary to join in their bedroom activities, but she was able to get out of it. Penelope was more than game.

Catherine attempted to get Penelope to drug the king with something Nostradamus had made. They just wanted to put him down for a while until they could figure out what was wrong with him. But Penelope doubled crossed Catherine, told Henry what was going on and then the king slipped the potion into Catherine’s wine. Thankfully, Mary was there to catch the queen before she went into a coma and they were able to get Nostradamus to make the antidote. But WTF is up with this Penelope girl? I am not here for anyone who is going against Catherine. I assume Henry will kill her sooner rather than later and I will be ready and waiting to cheer for her demise.

2. Bash saves Francis’ life – and we learn who really tried to kill Bash

It has killed me to see Francis and Bash at odds with each other over the past few episodes. I love their friendship, their brotherly bond and seeing the two have each other’s backs. The mission to the woods started with more sniping, but then Francis fell beneath the ice and Bash was desperate to save his brother. He did some quick thinking and pulled Francis out as fast as he could and then he held his brother to his chest and begged him to survive. It was beautiful and perfect.

Later, the two were back at the castle and Francis was feeling better. He finally realized that Bash does not hate him and Bash came to terms with the fact that it was not Francis who sent the guards to kill him (for the record, I never believed that it was). The two had another wonderful brotherly moment and then crazy Henry came and tried to take Bash’s head off for defying his orders. The brothers quickly realized he was the one who had ordered Bash killed (rude!). Francis managed to talk Henry out of killing Bash, but that wasn’t the king’s final move for the evening.

1. Henry arranges a marriage – and Bash reveals the truth to Mary

Everyone gathered on Henry’s orders (the alternative was death) to witness the wedding Henry decided needed to happen in order to keep Bash from having impure thoughts about Mary. So who was the bride? Kenna. That’s right. The king decided to marry off his mistress to his bastard son – and he attended the wedding barefoot with his sword in hand in case anyone tried to get out of line. Poor Kenna cried through the ceremony and Bash stepped up when Henry threatened her with the sword. Bash and Kenna are now legally married and everyone in the room was pretty much horrified through the whole ceremony.

This is a good twist – one my friend predicted a few weeks ago so I had some time to warm up to the idea. I love that Bash is back at the castle and since he and Kenna don’t really like each other, this should be an interesting relationship to watch unfold. In the meantime, Bash has no problem tossing his new title around (that Henry made up on the spot) to get the guards to keep looking into the chaos in the woods. But there is one more thing. Bash tells Mary that he should have left when he had the chance because when he said that he was over her? He was totally lying. Awkward.

It’s safe to say that dynamics at French Court have been shaken up like never before. Where do we go from here? I have no idea, but I can’t wait to see what the show has in store for us next.

Now it’s your turn. Did you like the episode? How did you feel about the surprise wedding? What about Penelope getting the best of Catherine? Are you happy Francis and Bash made up? Hit the comments and share your thoughts with us!